The head of the United Nations atomic energy agency assessed on Thursday that the U.S. and Israeli strikes caused “enormous damage” to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Rafael Grossi further warned that Iran’s threat not to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue to allow inspections could create a “new crisis,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
“I think that annihilated is too much. But it has suffered enormous damage,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said when asked if Iran’s nuclear program had been wiped out in an interview with a French radio network. “There is very, very, very considerable damage.”
He added that the centrifuges at the Fordow site are no longer operational, given the size of the strike and the equipment’s extreme sensitivity.
“Grossi said Iran was obligated under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to allow inspections of its nuclear sites and that Tehran can’t unilaterally suspend that. If Iran did so, he said, ‘We would be on the edge of a new crisis,’” the Journal reported.
During a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cited Grossi’s assessment, along with others by Israeli officials and the Central Intelligence Agency, to counter reporting that the strikes’ impact had only set Iran’s program back months.
He first noted the Defense Intelligence Agency’s early assessment, leaked to media outlets like CNN, the New York Times, and reported on Tuesday, stated specifically that it was a”preliminary low confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available.”
Hegseth then pointed to later reviews that reached different conclusions.
He paraphrased the Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission’s battle damage assessment, which concluded, “The devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come.”
Hegseth continued, “Here’s the head of the U.N. Atomic Energy Agency this morning, Rafael Grossi, ‘U.S. and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran’s nuclear sites.'”
.@PeteHegseth just ripped the media over the RUMINT report saying the Iran strikes were unsuccessful
They ran with one low confidence politically driven report
Against the opinions of pretty much everyone else
UN Atomic Energy Agency
The rest of the US IC
Israel
It’s wicked pic.twitter.com/luY2bm2CBp— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) June 26, 2025
He quoted IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effi Defrin, who said Wednesday, “I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, and I can also say that we set it back by years, I repeat, years.”
Hegseth then pointed to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, who said Wednesday, “Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”
“I’m sure that’s an understatement,” the SecDef added.
Hegseth further cited CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who put out a statement Wednesday to counter the CNN and Times stories.
He said that based on a body of credible evidence, Iran’s nuclear weapons program was “severely damaged” by the U.S. air strikes.
My statement confirming CIA intelligence which contradicts illegally sourced public reporting regarding the destruction of key Iranian nuclear facilities. pic.twitter.com/Ln3b4hfELc
— CIA Director John Ratcliffe (@CIADirector) June 25, 2025
Ratcliffe explained that the evidence “includes new intelligence from an historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Hegseth highlighted that the CIA’s review is of a different caliber than the DIA’s preliminary low-confidence assessment.
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